Hendersons make winning on the LPGA Tour a sister act

After spending a year on the Symetra Tour, Brittany Henderson realized how lonely it could be as a touring golf professional, particularly in your first season on a tour.

Traveling from tour stop to tour stop can be a solitary experience.

That’s why she didn’t want her younger sister Brooke to go through her inaugural season on the LPGA Tour alone at the impressionable age of 18.

So Brittany, 25, who was the Big South Conference Women’s Golfer of the Year in her senior season at Coastal Carolina in 2012-13, put her own playing aspirations on hold this year.

She has eschewed the full status she earned for 2016 on the Symetra Tour, the developmental feeder tour of the LPGA, to caddie for Brooke – and the Smiths Falls, Ontario, natives have formed a dynamic duo.

Brooke has rocketed to No. 2 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings behind Lydia Ko, the latest boost up the rankings courtesy of her win two weeks ago in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the second major of the LPGA season.

“I love to play and I love to compete. It was a really tough decision because I’ve been competing since I was 11-years-old and it felt like something I just did,” Brittany said this week. “I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to going by myself on the Symetra and I didn’t want her to be out on the LPGA by herself. It’s just easier if you have a buddy on tour with you.

“I think we need each other and I think you need a team to be successful on tour. We’ve just had so much fun this year, traveling together. It’s been like living a dream. I think it was just the best decision for both of us for this year.”

Sister act

Brittany played in 16 of 23 Symetra Tour events last year in her first full year as a touring pro and finished 49th on the money list with $16,650 earned – the bulk of it coming in a tie for second with her sister – to retain playing privileges in 2016.

Brooke, meanwhile, turned pro at the age of 17 in December 2014 as the world’s top-ranked women’s amateur and spent the first half of 2015 largely bouncing between the Symetra and LPGA tours, earning playing spots through sponsor exemptions and Monday qualifiers.

She tied Brittany for second in the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic last March and last June she won one of her five Symetra starts.

She recorded four top-25 finishes in the six LPGA events she played through the first week of June last year, tied for fifth in the 2015 Women’s PGA Championship on a sponsor exemption and tied for fifth last July at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Two LPGA starts later, she won the Cambia Portland Classic by eight shots for the largest margin of victory on the LPGA last season, and was immediately granted LPGA Tour membership by commissioner Mike Whan. She then recorded four consecutive top-25 finishes to close out 2016.

“It has really been an incredible journey,” Brooke said during a teleconference last week. “I was just trying to take advantage of every opportunity that I was given. I was able to win in Portland after Monday qualifying, and things just changed so dramatically so quickly.”

In addition to her Symetra Tour schedule and playing in three LPGA Tour events in 2015 with three missed cuts, Brittany also caddied in about eight of Brooke’s tournaments last year before deciding to caddie full-time this season.

“I love having her support right there,” Brooke said. “We spend a ton of time together on and off the course. … She’s my best friend and she’s now my caddie. She works really hard for me. She really does a good job, and I’m very happy to be able to share that [KPMG] win with her.”

Both sisters have a take on what makes their partnership so successful, and they concur that the foundation is a loving, amiable bond.

“We feel like a team,” Brittany said. “I guess it’s just because I know her so well as a person and know her game so well. I think having that history and having the friendship bond is huge. We’re sisters but we’re best friends, and I think it really helps to have someone you trust. You have to get all the numbers, but you also have to have fun. … It’s been so much fun and it’s working out really well.”

Brittany has committed to at least finishing the 2016 season on the bag.

“We hardly ever are in fights,” Brooke said. “Nothing really bothers us like that. Of course out on the course there’s going to be disagreements at times. Ultimately I’m the player and I get to make the final decision, but she just gives me all the information she can.”

Brooke began the 2016 season ranked 18th in the world. From early February through mid-April she recorded top-10s in eight consecutive tournaments, and has just one finish outside the top 30 this year in 16 starts.

Brittany feels surprisingly in the moment as her sister’s caddie. “I do miss playing a bit, but I feel like I’m still a part of it out here,” Brittany said. “You still get the adrenalin and picture the shot. You get the same feeling you’re playing, you just don’t hit the shot.”

While Brooke left the Women’s PGA Championship with the title, Brittany left the tournament with a new Kia K900 car that Brooke won with a hole in one on the par-3 13th hole in the first round. Pretty much every week on tour Brooke has told Brittany that if she holed out on a par-3 featuring a car as a prize she would give it to her. “I didn’t say it [that] week but I’m very happy to give it to her,” Brooke said.

The Henderson sisters’ success has truly been a family affair, as their father, Dave, has always been their primary swing coach. Dave was one of the Ontario province’s top junior golfers before becoming a professional hockey player, and Brittany said his career as an educator helps him impart his golf swing knowledge.

He’s often at tournaments and is in Rogers, Ark., this week, where Brooke is playing in the $2 million Walmart NW Arkansas Championship that tees off Friday before she defends her Portland Classic title next week.

“He’s always there every step of the way,” Brooke said. “It’s really been an amazing team and I’m very grateful and very blessed. … I think everybody has a different path, a different strategy to get to No. 1 and I’m very happy with how things are going right now and the strategy we have in place, and I’m hoping to keep that going.”

Brittany wants to continue touring the LPGA circuit with her sister for years to come, but hopes to someday do it as a competitor rather than a partner. “It would be really awesome to both be on the LPGA and do it that way,” she said.

That would require Brittany transitioning back into a playing career.

“At this point I’m kind of equally torn,” Brittany said. “I’m having so much fun out here and we’re working really well together. If I’m enjoying this as much as playing, then that’s fun too.”

Growing at CCU

Brittany had a successful junior career and was recruited by several U.S. colleges.

She knew she wanted to go far enough South to play year-round, and after seeing a television commercial for the PGA Golf Management Program, she narrowed her choices to Florida State and Coastal Carolina, which both offered it.

CCU got the nod largely because her family had taken spring break vacations to Myrtle Beach for several years into her mid-teens. “When I found out where Coastal was it was kind of like a no-brainer for me,” Brittany said. “I knew I wanted to play for the team but also knew I wanted golf to be part of my life. It was such a great area and there are so many golf courses it seemed like a really good fit for me.”

After two lackluster seasons, Brittany won the Big South Conference individual title in both her junior and senior seasons, was voted the 2013 conference golfer of the year and was the conference’s Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2012-13.

Henderson ranks second all-time at CCU with a single-season scoring average of 73.79 in her senior season.

“My last two years I really started to bring up the level of my game to where I knew I could play, so that was really awesome to go out on a high note and really gave me confidence in myself and game so that I could try to play pro,” Brittany said.

She graduated in December 2013 with a PGM degree following a seven-month internship at a golf course in New York, and in 2014 she played sporadically in pro events while working as an assistant pro at Smiths Falls Golf and Country Club in her hometown to accumulate money to pay for the LPGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.

She reached the final stage, where she had a poor first round but played well thereafter to earn full Symetra Tour status.

“I did enjoy it and I love the competition,” Brittany said. “I think that’s why I do miss playing but not as much as I thought I would because you’re still involved.”

She will lose her Symetra Tour status because she isn’t playing this year, and is still undecided about returning to Q-School late this year or committing to caddying at least one more season.

“I’m still trying to weigh the pros and cons and still trying to figure things out,” Brittany said.

This story was originally published June 23, 2016 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Hendersons make winning on the LPGA Tour a sister act."